Gary Stevens eyes return to Breeders’ Cup winner’s circle

Jockey Gary Stevens, left, sharing a humorous story with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, is looking to snap a 13-year winless streak in Breeders’ Cup races when he rides in nine of the 14 races this weekend at Santa Anita Park. Photo by Walt Mancini/Staff Photographer

ARCADIA -- Has it really been 13 years since Gary Stevens last won a Breeders’ Cup race?

We’ve had two presidents and experienced the horror of 9/11 since the 50-year-old Stevens rode War Chant to victory in the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Mile for trainer Neil Drysdale at Churchill Downs.

But if racing luck is on his side today and Saturday during the 30th Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park, Stevens figures to end that drought and perhaps more. He’s scheduled to ride in nine of the 14 races, including Beholder in today’s $2 million Distaff and Mucho Macho Man in Saturday’s $5 million Classic, one of the few major races he’s never won during a career that began at age 14 in Idaho and has been interrupted twice by retirements.

Stevens’ latest retirement because of bad knees ended in January when he began a comeback that has resulted in several stakes victories, including the Preakness in May aboard Oxbow, and a bevy of live horses at this year’s World Championships.

“If someone had told me this time last year that I would be sitting here now, I would have said I’m going to try because I did have things in the works, a plan set up to have everything come full circle at this time of the year,” said Stevens, who has served as a racing analyst for NBC and HRTV and enjoyed a few acting gigs during the years he was retired.

“Earlier this year when we won the Preakness with Oxbow, the first thing that came to mind was maybe I have a Breeders’ Cup Classic-type horse here. Then everything started snowballing. Marketing Mix came along. Indy Point. Mucho Macho Man. Beholder. I think I would have been pretty satisfied in January knowing that I was going to have one live contender coming into the Breeders’ Cup, let alone nine.”

Stevens will be aboard morning-line favorite Ever Rider in today’s $500,000 Marathon, 30-1 longshot Got Shades in the $1 million Juvenile Turf and Beholder, the 5-2 third choice, in the Distaff.

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“I’m not so sure she’ll be the third choice when it’s all said and done,” Stevens said of Beholder in a race that is short on entrants but long on talent. “It’s anybody’s race to win or lose by trip. It’s going to be a very tactical race and I’m looking forward to it.”

According to Stevens, who played legendary jockey George Woolf in the movie “Seabiscuit” and also starred in the HBO series “Luck,” the toughest part of his latest comeback after he got in shape was the age discrimination.

“Just convincing people that I still had it, and I got that opportunity,” he said. “If I wouldn’t have gotten these type of opportunities riding these kind of horses, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. This isn’t about so much what I’ve been able to accomplish but what the horses I’ve been riding have been able to accomplish over this year.”

Trainer John Gosden, now based in England after a stint in Southern California in the ‘80s, employed Stevens as a rider many times and marvels at the jockey’s skills. He says today’s younger riders could learn a lot about horsemanship by watching Stevens.

“He’s hugely talented, has a fabulous feel for a horse,” Gosden said. “He has the most beautiful hands to get the horse relaxed, and his analysis of a horse after the race is superb, first class. The thing about him is, he always thinks of the horse first. He’s never been one of these riders who’d be hard on a horse that wasn’t absolutely ready. He’s always been a first-class horseman.”

Stevens, who rode one race in the inaugural Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park in 1984 and finished last after coming to California from Washington to ride full time, vividly remembers the experience.

“It was my first introduction to (former jockey) Angel Cordero that day,” he said. “I almost fell on my head not too far away from the starting gate.”